Adventures Of An LDM Student

I'm not sure where to begin! The last few days have been amazing and the BLS (Basic Leadership School) hasn't even started yet! I arrived at one of YWAM London Urban Key's three houses on Monday and immediately welcomed into the YWAM family. The particular house I'm staying is where the BLS students live. One of the other houses is for the DTS and the third is for the YWAM arts department. One of the BLS students had already arrived at Dartmouth Road and it was nice being able to spend time relaxing with her and one of the DTS students who had come over to spend time with her sister (the sister has now gone on outreach, so the girl will be returning to the YWAM house that's the accommodation for the DTS students). The students have been arriving since Monday. I discovered yesterday that the material we're going to be doing too advanced to be called a Basic Leadership School, so the name has been changed to School of Leadership and Ministry Developement (or LMD for short). So from now on, I'll be referring to LMD, instead of BLS.

I'm sharing a bedroom with five other girls. It's a small room, with three sets of bunk beds and two closets in the room and one closet/wardrobe on the landing. I'm a little used to sharing a room with so many people because when I was on outreach there were times when there was six of us in a room, all the DTS girls (including the staff) and the translator. To be honest, I'm glad I arrived early because I've been able to choose my bed and unpack my many bags (I brought two suitcases and a duffle with my bedroll and sleeping bag in it). The LMD group isn't very big, there's only about eight of us, including staff, and a rather international group, with students from as far away as Ecuador. I'm going to write more about the group when I've met everyone properly, as some of the group still haven't arrived yet. It's gonna be a bit strange being in a smaller group after my large DTS (there was thirty-three of us, including staff).

On Tuesday, I went to see more of my mum's family, mum's niece, Amanda, and Amanda's boyfriend, Jason and mum's great nephew, Taylor. It's great being so central, in London, because now I'm able to see my English family more, and not having to pay more as I'm not having to travel through London. Amanda, Taylor and I went ice skating together, we went with some of Amanda's friends. I've done it once before, about four years ago, and really enjoyed it. So we went again on Tuesday. Taylor (Amanda's son) finished school last Friday and is now enjoying his Easter holidays, so I was able to see him as well. He's a lot like my brother, Caleb, though he's about a few years younger. I still remember when he was born, all those years ago. Then we had dinner out, before Jason brought me back to the LMD house. Jason knows London quite well because he drives through London in his truck, and thus he took me past a lot of London's sights, like the Eye, which was all light up, the Tower of London and Big Ben. I really enjoyed it, and kept gasping when I'd see different things. I guess you get used to seeing things, but when you see something for the first time it's a novelty.

I love traveling, partly because I get to see people. I love observing what they do and how they act. You have the business men in their suites and ties, many looking a bit aloft as they walk with their take away coffee cups from Costa's or Starbucks. There's the young working women, in business skirts or trousers, talking on their smartphones. There's the mums, sometimes with prams, sometimes without, and towing young children. Then you have the teenagers, some are in uniform and some aren't, with earphones in, wearing the latest fashions and, in some cases, with hair dyed crazy shades. Then you have those in between, the older ladies off to see their children, or those who have migrated to England. So many people these days have smartphones, I've grown up overseas, where the cellular advances are several years behind that of England. So every time I'm back here I'm shocked at the technology people are using. Smartphones that are so smart they really should be called mini-computers with the ability to send and receive text messages and phone calls.

I'm ever so excited about the start of the school. The official start is this evening but the information, the schedules and that kind of stuff we're going to be getting tomorrow. So I don't know what the lecture phase looks like, as in what we're going to be doing each week, but I have discovered that the weekends are different. Instead of having Saturday and Sunday off, we sometimes have Sunday afternoon and (as far as I know) all of Monday off, as we're going to be doing activities on Saturday and sometimes on Sunday, as well. There are a few things I'm going to have to asked to be excused from, so I can be involved with what's happening in my extended family. Some of the students are also going to arrive later today. It's all very exciting. It have also brought back some memories of my DTS and those first few weeks at the start of the lecture phase. I would never have imagined that I was going to be going into YWAM long term and that I was going to be in London, doing a secondary course. I wonder, if I'd known that I would have ended up here, what would I have done? I honestly don't know. I think it's a good think we don't know what the future holds. On that note, I'm gonna ask you to watch this space, if you want to know what's going to happen next in my life, and what the next few months hold for me.

The photographs. Here are the photos from the beginning. London Bridge, from the train; the London Eye, taken from Jason's car; Big Ben, also taken from Jason's car; my ice skating boots, from when I went ice skating on Thursday; and Teger (produced with a long e) and Iger; Amanda and Jason's Bengal cats (Teger's the spotted Bengal and Iger's the marble Bengal).